


Unlocking a Cage

by Copper_Nugget



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Abused Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders Angst, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders Has Panic Attacks, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders Needs a Hug, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders-centric, Anxious Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Caring Logic | Logan Sanders, Cat Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Cat/Human Hybrids, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders is a Good Friend, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gay Logic | Logan Sanders, Hurt Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Hurt/Comfort, Logic | Logan Sanders Is A Good Friend, M/M, Morality | Patton Sanders Tries, Morality | Patton Sanders is a Good Friend, Morality | Patton Sanders is a Sweetheart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:40:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25981477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Copper_Nugget/pseuds/Copper_Nugget
Summary: Some people are born with genetic mutations where they are part animal. It is very rare, but it happens. Virgil was one of those people. Hybrids like him are seen as abominations and treated as lesser than, and in extreme cases sold on the black market for slavery. Which is what happened to Virgil once his caring mom died and he was left with only his abusive father.After ten years living in a cage, Virgil has come to accept everything horrible that has been said about him. But then, three people come looking to save a hybrid, and they pick Virgil.While Virgil's physical cage may be unlocked, will Virgil ever learn to unlock the cage he has trapped himself in in his own mind, and learn that maybe he isn't just an abomination, and is in fact a person, or will he drown in his own thoughts for the rest of his life?And, at the same time as learning to feel safe, can Virgil and the others free the other hybrids from Virgil's fate of the last ten years, or will Virgil's fear and the other's lack of knowledge keep others locked in a cage forever?
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders, possible eventual LAMP I'm not sure yet though
Comments: 73
Kudos: 252





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys.  
> Yeah, I started writing another fic.  
> Shut up.  
> Look, I just really like cat Virgil, okay!?  
> Anyways, idk what's gonna happen with this fic, if it'll get finished, how frequently I'll post, anything, I just started it because I like hurt comfort, I like analogical, and I like cat Virgil, so yeah.  
> Hope you guys enjoy!  
> Trigger warnings:  
> torture/abuse, cages, screams, panic attack, fear, darkness, feelings of worthlessness, blood, injuries  
> I think that about covers it, but if I missed anything please feel free to scream at me in the comments. Stay safe, guys!!!

The floor was hard and cold underneath Virgil’s hands. Virgil’s ears twitched at the small sounds of the others twitching in their sleep, but he could never sleep. At least not here. Not at night. Not in the dark, not with the screams.

Because the night was when the hybrids were punished.

They started with the ones that broke the rules during the day, then they just rotated through the others. Because they still needed to be punished for existing. They were abominations, their existence was breaking a rule.

Virgil watched, able to see clearly in the darkness as the most recent victim was dragged back to their cage, bloody and broken. She was a rabbit hybrid, and one of her ears was clearly broken. As the torturer moved on to the next hybrid, the medic tended to the rabbit. They couldn’t be looking that bad in the morning, because that was when they were to be sold. 

Virgil hadn’t always lived here. He had a mother who loved him despite his genetic mutation. But then she died. And his father didn’t feel the same way, so he gave Virgil to this place, which was where he’d been for the last ten years. No one ever wanted to buy him.

He heard their words. Too small, too weak, too whiny, too frightened, incapable. They used to bother him, but now he had gone numb to their words. Once he had learned to believe them, they couldn’t hurt him anymore.

People normally bought the wolf hybrids, the lion ones. Or maybe the really small ones, the rabbits or the mice, to use to clean around the house. But the cat ones, no one wanted those. So Virgil had resigned himself to spending the rest of his useless, pitiful life in this place. Especially with his permanent limp from a particularly bad punishment a few years ago. 

He was unwanted.

And he had accepted it.

Eventually, the rotations got to him, and he was dragged from his cage and into that dark, horrible, stinky room. They pulled on his ears and stepped on his tail. They carved paw print shapes on his palms and feet. They hit him and kicked him and he didn’t scream. He barely felt the pain anymore. 

Eventually they dragged him back to his cage. The medic bandaged his hands and feet and told him to just ‘lick clean’ everything else. Yeah, the medic wasn’t very good. But he was better than nothing.

Virgil spent the rest of the night curled up in the corner of his cage, pretending he couldn’t feel the blood on his arms. Pretending he couldn’t hear the torture with his too good ears until, eventually, mercifully, the sun rose.

Virgil had resigned himself throughout the years to hanging out in the back corner of his cage, never being looked at by prospective buyers. It didn’t bother him anymore, or at least that's what he told himself. So that is what he thought he would spend today doing, but then, early afternoon, something different happened.

“Hello,” Virgil heard the voice as the bell in the front shop rang and more people came in. There was a pet shop in the front to hide the black market hybrid selling going on in the back. “We are looking to buy one of your longest resident hybrids.”

Huh, odd request from a buyer, but Virgil didn’t think much of it as the three people were led back to the cages. He heard a gasp and muffled sobs from one of them as they walked, and another one was trying to calm him down, whispering things so quietly that at that distance even Virgil’s ears couldn’t make them out. They rounded the corner and the group came into sight.

One of the shop leaders was leading them, obviously, and as Virgil had hears, there were three people following. The first person was professionally dressed, with a button down and a tie. He had glasses with dark hair and dark blue eyes. The other two were following behind, one in a light blue t-shirt and khakis. He was leaning on the third person and crying. He had blonde hair. The last person wore a while t-shirt and red leather jacket. He had brown hair and green eyes, and he was desperately trying to comfort the crying one.

“This is the section with the longest staying residents,” The owner explained, ignoring the sounds of the man crying. “Most of them have not been bought due to their lack of usefulness, or some form of malfunction. They do sell for a cheaper price, however I’d recommend-”

“No, we would like one from this section,” The man in the tie cut him off. The shop owner just shook his head in confusion and motioned for the people to begin looking.

Virgil stayed back in the dark corner of his cage, trying to remain unseen. He wasn’t worth their money, and even if they did see him it wasn’t like they’d buy him anyways. Apparently he wasn’t hidden enough.

The one in the tie approached his cage and Virgil felt himself beginning to shake from being trapped this close to another person. He kneeled down and looked at him curiously.

“Hello, my name is Logan. It says here your name is Virgil, is that correct?”

Virgil didn’t answer, too scared to speak. Logan stood up and Virgil relaxed slightly, thinking he was gone, but he came back barely a moment later with the shop owner in tow.

“I was wondering about this one,” Logan explained. “Can you tell me a bit more about him?”

“Oh, him,” the owner scoffed. “You don’t want him, he’s useless. He’s a black cat hybrid, been here for about five years. Has a permanent limp from his punishments. Too small to be of much help with anything, but not small enough to stay completely out of your way with smaller things. Why don’t you look ove-”

“Roman, Patton,” Logan cut him off. The other two men came over and Virgil curled up on himself even tighter. “I’d like you to meet Virgil.”

“Oh, hello kiddo,” The one with blonde hair cooed. Virgil could now see he also had glasses and blue eyes, though lighter than Logan’s. “I’m Patton. Would you like to come home with us?”

No, he wasn’t wanted, he was useless, they’d hurt him even more than the people here did. Virgil had heard horrible stories about what happened to hybrids that had been bought then returned. He couldn’t do that, no, no, nononono-

“We’ll take him,” The one with brown hair said, he must be Roman. The shop owner shrugged. 

“Your waste of money. Follow me to the checkout and I’ll have my assistants get him ready to go.”

A few minutes later, there were people all around Virgil, tying up his wrists and ankles, throwing him into a smaller cage, and dragging the cage to the front, the loud screeching of the cage on the floor causing Virgil to flatten his over sensitive ears to his head. 

The three men finished checking out then had his cage put in their car before they began driving him to who knows what hellscape he was being forced into. He felt his heart rate accelerating and he couldn’t breathe and no why did this always happen he’d be punished for this no he had to breathe-

“We’re here,” Roman announced from the drivers seat. He came around to the back and him and the others pulled Virgil’s cage out of the car but then...they set him down? They didn’t carry him in?

Suddenly Patton was in front of the cage, unlocking it and opening the door. He reached for Virgil’s hands with a pair of scissors in his other hand and Virgil jerked back, slamming his head into the cage. Patton immediately dropped the scissors and put his hands up in surrender.

“No, kiddo, it’s okay,” Patton assured quickly. “I wasn’t going to hurt you, I just wanted to cut off that rope. Can I do that?”

Virgil quickly shook his head no. He didn’t know why he was asking permission, he did own Virgil, but Virgil didn’t want any of them anywhere near him if he could help it. He used his unnaturally sharp teeth to chew through the rope, and though it took a few minutes he did manage to get his hands free and then just untied his ankles. Patton scooted away from the entrance of the cage, giving Virgil space to get out.

Virgil was absolutely terrified. He just wanted to go back to that dark, cold cage and live out the rest of his life there. It was what he had accepted, he hadn’t even thought something else could happen. He was scared and he didn’t know what to do, so, he stayed in the cage. 

Eventually the one named Roman went inside, Logan had told him to ‘set up Virgil’s room’, which probably meant turning off the heat and removing anything that could be comfortable to lay on and breaking all the lights. Then Logan walked up to Patton and placed a hand on his shoulder, as he was still sitting beside the entrance of the cage.

“Patton, I believe if we ever want Virgil to come out he may need more space than that,” Logan said matter-of-factly. Patton hesitated for a moment, before nodding and standing up, walking back a few yards with Logan where Virgil couldn’t see them from inside the carrier cage. He could still hear every time they shifted or every time Patton whispered something. His damn ears. 

Virgil probably would have never left the cage except it was starting to get dark and Virgil couldn’t take that, especially not outside and this vulnerable. At least if he was in the dark in a room there was only one entrance he had to watch, out hear something could come from any angle and, fuck, Virgil had to get out.

He cautiously crawled out of the front of the carrier. Logan was still standing a few yards away, Patton had gone in to help Roman as well. Virgil had to wonder how hard it was to make a room dark, cold, and uncomfortably, because it seemed to be taking them a while.

Logan didn’t react as Virgil made his way out of the cage, so Virgil kept going, watching Logan the whole time. Once he was all the way out he jumped to his feet with his catlike agility, before remembering the wounds he had been given the night before and falling again. Logan stepped forward quickly and Virgil hissed at him, so he froze.

“Virgil, it appears you have been injured. May I assist you?” Logan asked carefully.

Virgil shook his head, instead crawling painfully up the path towards the house he had seen Patton and Roman enter. Logan didn’t move, though he looked like he really wanted to, until Virgil was a few yards from the door, when he came forward slowly and opened the door for Virgil. It took a few more painful minutes, but soon enough, Virgil had entered the building and got to see his new place to live.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys I'm baaaack :)  
> Sorry it's been so long, school started and like I said I was just trying to do this fic for fun, so I'm not gonna stress about posting consistently on it, so just enjoy it whenever I do post I guess.  
> Also, I did alter the summary slightly as my plan has altered slightly. While Virgil's main arc will be healing, the plot of the fic will be taking down the black market on hybrids, because after talking to someone I know with PTSD, I really wanted to make sure that weaponizing PTSD wasn't all I was doing, so I hope that change helps with that will still allowing for a cute hybrid healing fic as well :)  
> Trigger warnings for this chapter:  
> pain, panic attack, fear, mentions of injuries, thoughts of past torture, lack of trust, lack of feeling safe, memories of abuse, PTSD  
> That should be it, please let me know if I missed anything and stay safe everyone!!!

Virgil had to admit, this was not what he had been expecting. The front room was warm and brightly lit, with a couch along the wall facing a television and two, nice, plush looking chairs. To the left was a staircase and to the right was the entrance to the dining room, which was just an open area in the wall, no door. 

“Your room is upstairs, if you’d like to see it and get comfortable for the night,” Logan explained. “We can give you a proper tour tomorrow.”

Virgil shrugged and Logan motioned for him to follow. Logan walked slow so Virgil could keep up in his injured state. Logan led Virgil up the stairs where there was a door in front of Virgil, then a door to his left and a hall to his right. Logan led him down the hall and along the way Virgil saw two more doors before reaching one at the end of the hall.

“This will be your room,” Logan said as he opened the door.

Virgil was expecting a cage, leashes, possibly a wall of tools to hurt him with. He was expecting no light, no blanket, no windows. But that was not this room at all. Instead, there was a simple black carpet on the floor and a desk against the left wall next to a bookshelf that was mostly empty with just a few fairy tales and nature books. There was a bed in the back right corner with a short, long dresser next to it that acted as a bedside table as well. There was a lamp, and the bed had plenty of blankets and pillows, along with a functional ceiling light, and windows with white curtains.

“We didn’t get anything else because we wanted to make sure you could pick,” Logan continued as Virgil cautiously made his way into the room, prepared for any sort of thing that could pop out and hurt him. Maybe something under the bed, a trap door under the carpet, something hidden behind the books on the bookshelf. He glanced at Logan as he painfully made his way to these places, waiting for him to stop Virgil from looking, but he didn't. And Virgil found nothing.

That...that couldn’t be right. There should at the VERY least be a cage to punish him if he missed a chore, right?

Virgil wanted to ask, but didn’t want to risk being punished for asking too many questions, so he didn’t say anything, and once he sat down on the bed, Logan started talking again.

“The bathroom was through that door at the top of the stairs. Patton can help you clean up any injuries you may have before bed tonight if that’s okay. Tomorrow one of us can show you the rest of the house, then if you’re comfortable we can take you out shopping to get your things.”  
Virgil really doubted it mattered if he was comfortable. He knew if he refused he’d be punished, it was what always happened. In fact, the things they had to get tomorrow were probably things for his punishments. That must be why there weren’t any there already. They weren’t sure what hybrid they were gonna get and wanted to get instruments unique to the breed. That must be it.

Virgil shuddered at the realization, but Logan didn’t seem to notice.

“I shall leave you be now, Patton will be up shortly to help you clean up,” Logan finally finished. “Feel free to make yourself comfortable.”

And with that, Logan left the room. And Virgil was alone.

The only time he’d been alone in the past ten years was while waiting for...for **Them** to come. When he was in that room. Waiting to be punished.

He remembered the darkness.

The cold.

The pain.

Virgil whimpered as pain shot through his back, his ears, his tail. His hands and feet throbbed with the wounds he had received the night before and the memories were relentless, the fear was never ending. He thought it would suffocate him, he’d be trapped forever, and that was the punishment in this home. Never ending fear.

He didn’t even notice the tears on his face or how badly he was shaken until what could have been hours or minutes later, when he heard voices coming toward his door.  **Their** voices.

Virgil dived off the bed, somehow managing to do it quietly with his cat agility and reflexes, and rolled under it, biting his lip to stop from crying out at the pain it caused. He forced his unhealthily quick breathing and panicked purring to a stop as he listened to the voices.

“-we can’t just leave more of them to end up like this!” The first voice was saying, sounding distraught. “He’s so hurt and scared, we can’t let this keep happening! We have to do more!”

“I know love,” The second voice sighed. “But this is a start. We can’t afford to adopt all of them or buy the business or anything, and it may take a while to figure out what to do, but Logan is working on it, okay? Hopefully Virgil can help too once he is on his feet again.”

Oh God, what did they want him to do!? He was weak and useless whatever it was he’d fail them and they’d hurt him and-

“Okay,” The first voice muttered. “I just...I just want to do more.”

“I know, Patton, you always do.”

Patton? That wasn’t one of  **Their** names. Wait, this wasn’t that room either, Virgil realized as he finally truly processed that he was under a bed.

He wasn’t there.

But he still wasn’t safe.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and the first voice, the one that Virgil now knew had been Patton all along, spoke.

“Hey kiddo, I’m here to help clean you up!”

Too scared to say no, Virgil crawled out from under the bed, breathing still ragged and still shaking, but he managed to get his tears to stop as Patton came in.

“Oh, kiddo what are you doing down there?” Patton asked worriedly, and Virgil just shrugged. Patton took in Virgil’s disheveled appearance and a sad look crossed his face before he plastered on a smile once more. “Here, I’ll help get you cleaned up, come on.”

Patton led Virgil down the hall to the bathroom and had him sit on the edge of the tub while Patton showed Virgil how to work the bath. He left for Virgil to get clean, which he did as quickly as possible, trying not to think about all the times  **They** had thought of water being a great way to torture a cat as he quickly got clean, the water slightly pink as it went down the drain. Patton had left Virgil some of his blue pajamas to put on, and Virgil slid them on then threw back on his hoodie before opening the door slightly as Patton had requested.

Patton came back in a few minutes later, arms full of first aid supplies.

“Okay kiddo, tell me what hurts,” Patton said and Virgil shrugged for what was probably the millionth time that day. He just didn’t want to say anything wrong. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me, Virgil.”

Fear of upsetting his new owners took over quickly when Patton pushed, and Virgil blurted out an answer. “Ears, tail, hands, feet, ribs, stomach, legs.”

Patton looked on the verge of tears and Virgil could barely breathe from fear before Patton nodded. “Thank you, kiddo. Can you take off your hoodie so I can get a better look.”

From then on Virgil followed Patton’s instructions obediently, not making a sound no matter how much it stung as Patton cleaned his wounds. They probably just wanted him fixed up so he could be more effective around the house anyways. Or maybe they just wanted to be able to punish him without killing him. Whatever it was, Virgil couldn’t risk questioning it.

At some point Patton started crying and Roman took over, then at the end Logan came in and checked everything, but Virgil wasn’t even there anymore at that point. Endless possibilities of future pain floating in his head, ideas carved from the memories of past scars.

The thought’s didn’t cease their noise even as Virgil went back to his room. Not when Patton came in and said goodnight to him. Not when voices outside his door began discussing something again. He was too far gone from the real world to even process the words as he laid on the bed, somehow both emotionless and terrified, desperately praying for sleep to take him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for reading!!! Feel free to leave a comment, I reply to all of them even if it isn't exactly in a timely manner, and thanks to the person that told me cats purr when they are scared, that's a really great tip and I'm gonna try to continue to remember that for future chapters!!!   
> Whenever I post the next chapter, it will be them going shopping, so look forward to whenever that happens I guess  
> Thank you all again for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you guys whenever I post next!!! :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, I'm back!!!  
> Sorry if this chapter is kinda a mess, I was going to reread it and edit it and stuff but it's been a couple days and I just don't think it's gonna happen lol, so here it is anyways.  
> Also I have a midterm today and just wanted to get this out to make you guys happy and possibly get some comments, because those always make my day better :)  
> And yes, I made Virgil french, I don't really have a good reason other than I like it when characters slip into other languages on accident, I think it's cute. I don't speak french (I took three years of it before giving up), so I'm using google translate so it may not be perfect, but I will put translations in the end notes.  
> Anyways, here's a chapter, hope you enjoy!!!  
> Trigger warnings:  
> anxiety attack, fear of being hurt, memories of being starved, lack of self worth, general anxiety, rules, PTSD  
> I think that's it but as always let me know if I missed anything!!!

Virgil didn’t get much sleep that night, and was actually awake when a knock came on his door.

“Good morning, Virgil,” Logan’s voice spoke. “We shall be departing to the mall in about an hour, would you like some breakfast?”

Virgil’s stomach rumbled at the mention of food, but his mouth went dry at the memory of the dry cat food he was forced to eat the last ten years. Because he was part cat, he could technically live off of it, but one bowl a day wasn’t really enough to sustain him, and it tasted like shit. But it was better than nothing.

When Virgil didn’t answer he heard a sigh from the other side of the door and a shuffle before Logan spoke again.

“I shall leave food outside the door, feel free to eat as much as you want. Patton will bring you clean clothes to wear before you leave.”

Virgil heard a dish being set down on the other side of the door, then footsteps as Logan walked away. Virgil waited until he was sure Logan was gone before he slowly crept towards the door to get the food. No matter what it was, it would be better than the current pain in his stomach.

He opened the door a crack, expecting some form of cat food, but instead, on the other side, there was a tray. It had american pancakes (Virgil still missed his breakfasts as a kid when he lived in France), bacon, syrup, butter, and a glass of milk.

Virgil snatched the tray and pulled it into the room quickly before examining the food closely. It smelled normal, it looked normal, there were no signs they were trying to poison him. But also why would they give him such a nice breakfast.

All those worries went to the back of Virgil’s mind as his stomach made a loud, painful rumble, and he snatched the fork and took a large bite of the pancake. It was amazing. Not as good as crepes, but still great. Not that he could remember how good crepes were very clearly, considering he’d moved to America when he was six. 

He ate the pancakes and bacon quickly and drank the milk. He remembered the first time his mom had gotten him an american breakfast. He had been so upset by the lack of crepes, but she had fixed up his pancake perfectly. 

She died just a couple years later. 

Then his dad sold him.

And now Virgil was back in that place.

Thankfully, he wasn’t given long to dwell in that place in his mind, as soon there was yet another knock on the door.

“Hey kiddo, I have some clothes for you!” Patton said. Virgil didn’t reply. “I’ll just leave them here, put them on then come downstairs when you’re ready!”

Then Patton left.

As much as Virgil didn’t trust these people, he knew ignoring their requests would go horribly, so he quickly grabbed the clothes and put them on. It was a pair of sweatpants and a purple t-shirt, both of which were too big. Virgil tucked his tail into one of the pant legs then tied the waist tighter so they wouldn’t fall down before pressing his ears to his head and limping out of the room.

When he got downstairs Patton, Logan, and Roman were in the living room, talking quietly about something. Virgil paused to try and hear what they were saying.

“We need to figure out how to get him comfortable as soon as possible to get this process going!” Roman was saying.

“As much as I want to help as many kiddo’s as possible, we can’t do that,” Patton sighed.

“Patton is correct,” Logan agreed. “We cannot rush Virgil, however, the sooner he feels comfortable talking about his experiences, the better.”

“I know,” Roman muttered. “It’s just, like I was telling Pat last night, we can’t just buy them all, we’re reliant on Virgil here and I just...I know how much it hurts you to know more are suffering babe, I just, I want to get this going faster…”

Virgil wasn’t sure what they were talking about, and wanted to listen longer, but just then Roman caught sight of him.

“Hi Virgil!” Roman said with a smile that he definitely hadn’t had a moment before. “Ready to go?”

Virgil absolutely did not want to go anywhere, but he was much too scared to say no, so he nodded. Patton grinned and began practically bouncing to the car, and Roman grabbed the keys and followed. Logan lingered. He didn’t say anything, but Virgil had a feeling he was waiting for him, so Virgil began limping his way to the car, where he crawled into the back seat and Logan sat next to him.

The drive to the mall was mostly quiet, except for a few comments from Patton every now and then about how excited he was to get things for Virgil. Eventually, they pulled into the parking lot and everyone got out, so Virgil followed.

There were a lot of people as they walked through the mall. Too many people. It was loud and Virgil could hear so many conversations. He closed his eyes for just a moment to try and block it out, but suddenly he hit something. His eyes flew open to see that Roman had stopped, and he had walked right into his back!

“ Je suis désolé! Je suis vraiment désolé de ne pas l'avoir fait! Ne me faites pas de mal, s'il vous plaît, c'était un accident!” Virgil was apologizing quickly as he scampered backwards, so scared he slipped into his first language despite nearly thirteen years of living in America and speaking English. Roman turned around and looked at him in confusion, then in concern as he saw how terrified Virgil was.

“Hey, hey it’s okay!” Roman held up his hands slowly so Virgil could see he wasn’t going to hurt him. “It’s okay, Virgil!”

Virgil was shaking and crying as he shook his head. How could it be okay!? He had bumped into Roman! He wasn’t supposed to do that! Roman was going to hurt him and then he wouldn’t be able to do whatever they wanted him to do and then they’d get mad again and-

“Virgil, it is okay,” Suddenly Logan was in front of him, kneeling slightly to be at Virgil’s eye level. “We aren’t going to hurt you.”

“But I...I did a...a…” English seemed to have been forgotten in Virgil’s panic as he tried desperately to string words together. “A...a not good.”

“No,” Logan disagreed. “It is okay to make a mistake.”

“But...but the rules,” Virgil continued to protest.

“Bumping into Roman is not against the rules,” Logan said. “There are no rules.”

No rules? No rules!? But then how would Virgil no if he did something wrong!? How would he know what to avoid doing to keep from getting punished!? No, no, he needed to know the rules, it was the only we he’d survive!

Logan seemed to notice Virgil’s panic, as he spoke again.

“Actually, there are three rules,” Logan said, and Virgil heard Patton begin to protest from behind them but Logan cut him off. “Always make sure to eat and drink every day, tell us if you want or need anything, and help us wash the dishes after dinner.”

Okay, three rules. Virgil could do that. They were kinda strange, but he could follow them. The dishes made sense, and the eating made sense so he’d have energy to do work, he just wasn’t sure about the middle rule, maybe it was so they could make sure he didn’t get it? Whatever it was, he’d make sure to follow it. He had to.

But that did mean that bumping into Roman was not against the rules.

So Virgil would be okay for now.

“Okay,” Virgil nodded. “Okay, okay.”

“Good,” Logan smiled. “Now, let's get you some clothes. And apparently I’m going to need to review my french knowledge.”

“I know English,” Virgil said.

“Yes, your English is basically perfect, but I can tell from your accent that it is not your first language,” Logan observed. “Therefore I shall attempt to cater to your knowledge as much as possible, so if you ever slip up or forget a word, I will be able to assist.”

He probably just wanted to be able to make sure Virgil never said anything he shouldn't, Virgil reasoned with himself. But also, none of the rules said he couldn’t say certain things, so he wasn’t sure why Logan would want to put in that effort. He didn’t want to question it though, so instead he just nodded, and they spent the rest of the walk to the store in silence.

Once they got to the store Patton got to work picking out a bunch of things for Virgil to try on, but Virgil was instead drawn to a purple and black patch hoodie. There were also a lot of soft purple sweaters and black t-shirts he really liked. Normally he wouldn’t have said anything, but it was the rules, so he pointed them out to Roman, who was closest.

“I like these,” Virgil admitted, and Roman gave him a little smile before coming closer to look at them.

“Of course the black cat has an emo style,” Roman chuckled to himself. Virgil wasn’t sure what emo meant, but he was too scared to ask so decided to stay quiet. “Let’s get them!”

Wait, really? Virgil figured they wanted to know to not get things for him that he liked...none of this made any sense. Why did they seem to be being nice to him?

Virgil still couldn’t figure it out as they were checking out, they had grabbed some black jeans and some sweatpants too, and Patton had made him choose a onesie because apparently they all had one. After that they went to a furniture store where they got him purple curtains to replace the white ones, they got him a plush purple and black striped chair and a little coffee table to go with it, and they got him even more pillows.

Finally they went to one last store where they got him books, organizers for his desk, a poster Logan found of the eiffel tower in front of a purple and black galaxy sky, a couple stuffed animals, some purple fairy lights, and a couple other nicknacks that caught Virgil’s eye and he had pointed out because of the rule. 

After that they went back to the house and Patton, Logan and Roman helped Virgil set up his room. They put the plush chair and coffee table in the back left corner, and scooted the desk over to the front left corner, with the bookshelf moved so it was on the other side of the corner next to the desk. They set up some of his nicknacks on his dresser, including a little eyeshadow palette and mini mirror, and filled it with his new clothes. They hung the poster above his bed and the fairy lights along the wall. They put the books in the bookshelf, put pillows on the chair, replaced the curtains, and placed the stuffed animals on the bed. Finally, Patton and Roman left to go work on dinner. Virgil had been hoping Logan would leave too, but he didn’t, instead standing in Virgil’s room with an extra bag Virgil didn’t remember.

“I got a few extra things for you as well,” Logan explained as he set down the bag and pulled some things out. “I got you a beanie. I noticed you often have your ears hidden in your hair, so I thought this could be a more comfortable solution. I also got a puzzle, I thought that could help you relax when you are stressed.”

Virgil crept forward slowly to look at the items. The beanie was purple, and it fit perfectly over his ears. Logan smiled when Virgil put it on, and the way it made Logan’s face light up, Virgil decided he’d have to wear it all the time. It also did really help with making hiding his ears more comfortable.

Then Virgil looked at the puzzle. It was also France themed, just a street corner with some stores and people milling around, but it reminded Virgil so distinctly of being home, of those first few years of his life when he was actually happy, that he felt tears spring into his eyes.

“Thank you,” Virgil said sincerely. He still didn't understand why these people were being so nice to him, but each kind action made it harder and harder for Virgil to figure out what ulterior motives they could have. Maybe...just possibly...they actually just wanted to be nice to him. He couldn’t quite believe that yet, but the possibility was there.

“ Vous êtes les bienvenus,” Logan replied with a smile. “I shall leave you to enjoy your new room now, I will be back to let you know when dinner is ready.”

Then Logan had left. And for the first time since his mom had died, he found himself wishing for another person's company.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed!! Feel free to leave comments, and I'll update when I can!!!  
> Translations:  
> Je suis désolé! Je suis vraiment désolé de ne pas l'avoir fait! Ne me faites pas de mal, s'il vous plaît, c'était un accident!: I'm sorry! I'm so sorry I didn't mean to! Please don't hurt me it was an accident!  
> Vous êtes les bienvenus: You're welcome


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey kiddos. I said I'd get this chapter out this weekend, and here I am just barely pulling it off with an unedited trashy chapter because I've been so busy omggggg. I hope you guys like it, hopefully it's not too much of a mess lol.  
> Trigger warnings:  
> panic attack, drowning, head injury, feeling trapped, mention of death, brain damage  
> hopefully that's it, let me know if I missed anything.   
> Stay safe, love you guys!!!

By the time Logan came to get Virgil for dinner, he felt like shit. His hands were shakey and his breathing was uneven. He wasn’t sure exactly why, there hadn’t necessarily been a trigger. Maybe it was because he was lonely, God, he didn’t know how long it had been since he actually felt lonely, probably not since his mom died.

Whatever it was, it sucked, but Virgil was used to it, so he went downstairs and pretended nothing was wrong. He ate as much as he could force himself to, which really wasn’t a lot, then before he knew it he was helping Logan wash the dishes. He hadn’t spoken much during dinner, though Patton had tried to pull him into the conversation a couple times and he had evaded by turning the conversation to someone else, but when Logan began speaking with just Virgil there, he knew there was no getting out of this one.

“So I am assuming you’re completely fluent?” Logan asked and Virgil nodded. “And you’re fluent in English? That’s pretty impressive, a second language is hard to learn. When’d you move here?”

“When I was six,” Virgil answered.

“Was it for work or school or family or what?” Logan asked.

“Dad’s work.”

“What did he do?”

“Not sure,” Virgil answered honestly, but he knew that probably wouldn’t be a good enough answer and tensed in preparation for pain, but none came.

“Okay,” Logan shrugged. “What about your mom?”

“She was a teacher,” Virgil knew that one. “She taught french when we moved here.”

“So does that mean you’ve had some schooling?”

“A bit,” Virgil said. He’d gone to school until his mom died, then his dad sold him and it had kind of been out of the question.  
“That’s good!” Logan smiled. “I am happy to assist you in learning anything you may not know. Perhaps you could help me with french as well!”

“Okay,” Virgil replied. He liked Logan, and as much as he was scared of doing something wrong, he would do any tasks this family requested.

“I have a couple days off work this week, so do Roman and Patton, perhaps you could teach us all some!”

Virgil nodded in agreement as he finished drying the last dish. Logan gave him a small smile.

“Feel free to go back to your room if you’d like. Or stay down here. It is up to you.”

Part of Virgil actually wanted to stay downstairs with his new owners, despite the fear of upsetting them. They were just kind and comforting, and somehow Virgil was finding himself feeling better in their presence. But Virgil was also still feeling a bit shaky, having nearly dropped a few of the dishes while cleaning them, and he figured being around these people who held so much power over him probably wouldn’t help.

“You can also feel free to take a bath or shower if you’d like that,” Logan added when Virgil hesitated. A bath actually sounded really nice. Virgil gave a small nod and Logan smiled. “That shall be ideal then. I will get you a towel and make sure you know where everything is.”

Virgil followed Logan back upstairs where he got Virgil a towel while Virgil grabbed a change of clothes, then he showed Virgil how the bath/shower combo worked and showed Virgil where they had put the special shampoo and conditioner for his hair which was more similar to cat fur. Once he was done explaining everything, he left, and Virgil was alone again.

Virgil began running the bath as he got undressed, taking off his bandages as Logan had said, apparently having on wet bandages was bad, so they’d have to replace them with dry ones. **They’d** never done that for Virgil when he was  **there** . He hadn’t gotten to do a lot of the things he got to do here.

Virgil let the bath fill completely before getting in, enjoying the sound of the water flowing into the tub. He liked that sound, it wasn’t too intense, but it was loud enough to block out many of the other sounds that Virgil’s ears were always picking up. The sounds that overwhelmed him. 

His hands were still shaking when he finally turned to nobs to stop the water, and he was just stepping into the bath when something happened.

He heard a crash and a yell from below. Before he could even think, he was thrown back  **there** . Screams crushed down on him and his head was hurting, probably from how loud it was. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t see. It was dark and the screams just kept coming and his head  _ hurt _ why wouldn’t his head stop hurting!?

The pain continued to get worse and worse and it was like a pounding, a pulse that didn’t line up with the screams, but Virgil’s brain was too far gone to figure out that it was from something different, to figure out that he couldn’t breathe not because of the panic attack, but because he was under water.

The screams kept going, not stopping, the pain continuing to build until finally, mercifully, Virgil passed out.

Virgil woke up, unsure of where he was but sure that his head  _ hurt _ . There was a beeping from beside him and each beep sent another shock of pain through his head. At least the screaming was gone though. At least he could breathe again. 

He heard a door open, causing him yet more pain, and couldn’t stop his groan. Oh shit. Oh fuck whoever was there was gonna be so mad he wasn’t supposed to show pain he-

“Virgil?” Logan’s voice asked quietly. Virgil opened his eyes just slightly to see Logan standing in the doorway of a white room, two other figures behind him that were not Patton and Roman. “Oh thank God you’re awake! Oh we were so worried, the doctors weren’t even sure you would wake up!”

Wait, what? What doctors, what was he talking about. Virgil opened his mouth to ask these questions, but all that came out were sounds and half words. “W-...Do...trs?”

What the fuck? Why couldn’t he talk!? Okay, now Virgil was really panicking. The machine beside him started beeping faster and his breathing sped up. Logan came over beside him quickly.

“Virgil it’s okay, you need to breathe. You drowned, but you’re okay now. There’s some brain damage but with some therapy you should be able to mostly recover. You’re okay.”

Brain damage!? Therapy!? How the hell was that okay!? It wasn’t like anyone would give that to him! It wasn’t like anyone cared enough! He’d just be unable to speak, trapped in his own head for the rest of forever, punished relentlessly because now he was even more weak and useless than before, no one would want him, they were gonna get rid of him, they were gonna send him back  **there** .

“We’re gonna help you too,” Logan added, as if he could read Virgil’s mind. “We’re not gonna get rid of you, we want to help, and we will. Okay?”

Virgil wasn’t sure he believed him, in fact, he was pretty sure he didn’t, but he was so tired and in so much pain, so he just didn’t say anything else, and as he laid there his breathing and heart rate began to go back to normal, so Logan took that as an okay.

“Good,” Logan smiled. “For now, I have some friends here I would like you to meet.” Logan motioned for the people in the doorway to come on. One of them was thin and tall, with a large birthmark covering half of his face. The other was slightly shorter, with chaotic hair and an even more chaotic outfit. “Virgil, meet Janus and Remus.”

“Nice to meet you, Virgil,” The taller one, apparently Janus, said. “Apologies if our presence makes you uncomfortable. We work with Logan, Patton and Roman, so when we heard you were hurt we wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Yeah, we had a hybrid we were trying to help once and she died cause she didn’t tell us she was hurt!” Remus added helpfully and Janus glared at him. “Sorry, was that too much?”

“Yes, honey, that was a bit too much,” Janus sighed, though there was a fond smile on his lips.

Virgil was still stuck on what Janus had said though. They wanted to make sure Virgil was okay. Why? Why would they care about him? He was a useless hybrid, unable to fulfil his sole purpose of helping people and being useful. Plus, Janus and Remus didn’t even know him. Why the hell would they care!? But of course, Virgil couldn’t ask, cause he couldn’t seem to voice anything he was thinking. It was as if his thoughts wouldn’t connect to the rest of his body. He was trapped, and it was terrifying. 

Logan must have been able to tell something was wrong, as next thing Virgil knew Logan was asking Janus and Remus to leave. 

“Virgil, honey, what’s wrong?” Logan asked once the other two were gone, and Virgil just stared at him, wide eyes and scared. What was wrong? He knew something was wrong, but all coherent thoughts he’d had about it a moment before were gone, and somehow that was even scarier. His breathing began to speed up again and the monitor was beeping faster. Logan looked around frantically, as if looking for help, or for an escape, Virgil wasn’t sure, before pulling a chair closer to Virgil’s bed and beginning to speak quietly.

“Ça ira. Tu es en sécurité.” Logan began, stumbling over the words but trying nonetheless. It took Virgil’s mind a moment to process the change in language, but the moment he recognized it as french, his first language, something inside of him was able to breathe again. Some part of his mind felt stronger, more sensical. Things made just a little more sense. “On s'occupe de vous. Nous ne vous blesserons pas. Vous allez bien ici. Tu es en sécurité.”

Logan continued murmuring these things again and again, short, soothing sentences, until Virgil’s breathing evened out again and his eyes began to droop closed, exhaustion weighing on him heavily. 

“Go to sleep, darling,” Logan said quietly. “We will still be here when you awake. Rest now, and get better.”

And Virgil listened to that request, and let the world disappear once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!! Feel free to leave a comment, I reply to all of them, and see y'all next time I update this!!

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, there's that. Look I know I should be spending my time actually finishing my other fics that some of you guys are probably reading, but I just really wanted to write this, okay!? Don't judge me!  
> Anyways, feel free to leave comments and such, and I'll update this whenever I feel like it basically.  
> Thanks for reading!!!


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